CQ Communications, Inc.

Monday, February 11, 2019

NY Court Rules that Excessive Fees Violate PRB-1

Second Department courthouse of the Appellate Divisionof the New York State Supreme Court (from NY State Courtswebsite)

The Appellate Division of
the New York State Supreme Court (the state's second-highest court) ruled in
early January that a town government exceeded its authority and violatd the
FCC's requirement for "reasonable accommodation" of amateur antennas
by trying to make a local amateur reimburse the town for thousands of dollars
in consulting fees in connection with his application to build a tower higher than the town normally permits.

The ARRL Letter reports that the case stretches back to 2013, when
Myles Landstein, N2EHG, applied to the Town of LaGrange for a permit to build a 70-foot
tower. The town normally allows towers to be no higher than 35 feet. The town
tried to make Landstein pay more than $17,000 in consulting fees before
considering his application, according to the court, which ruled that the fees
were excessive and that a town "may not use its land-use regulatory
authority to construct 'hoop after hoop' for the petitioner to jump through in
order to erect his antenna tower [and] cannot impose unreasonable expenses so
as to create an insurmountable financial barrier to the pursuit of the
project."

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Published monthly since 1945, CQ is today the world's leading independent amateur radio magazine, now available in both print and digital editions. We focus on interesting people and practical projects, plus we sponsor a wide array of contests and award programs. These include the very challenging Worked All Zones (WAZ) and USA-Counties (USA-CA) awards and the world's most popular ham radio contests, the CQ World Wide DX Contest and the CQ WPX Contest. Subscriptions are available online through our website, www.cq-amateur-radio.com.